The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is downplaying the true scale of planned benefit cuts for chronically ill and disabled people. This is according to analysis from the New Economics Foundation (NEF).
NEF has calculated that planned overall cuts of £6bn from the social security budget could actually result in support for ill and disabled people being slashed by between £7.5bn and £9bn a year by 2029 – 30.
DWP cuts: the government is not telling the whole story
DWP proposals leaked last week contained a range of measures totalling over £6bn of cuts. These included one major “cost neutral” measure that did not contribute to the total figure: increasing the basic rate of universal credit (UC) while cutting the additional rate received by people unable to work due to disabilities or poor health.
This is intended to reduce the £400-a-month gap between the two rates. However, NEF analysis of Resolution Foundation figures shows that this would likely mean much greater cuts than the £6bn cuts figure suggests to support for 1.7 million households with a chronically ill or disabled adult.
The NEF analysis has found that, of DWP cuts:
- Closing the gap in monthly payments by £100 would result in cutting an extra £1.5bn in payments to ill and disabled people – equivalent to £73 a month for each person.
- Halving the gap would result in cutting an extra £3bn in payments to ill and disabled people – equivalent to £146 a month for each person.
When combined with other planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments (PIP), this could result in a total loss of DWP support for ill and disabled people of between £7.5 and £9bn.
This figure does not include the £3bn of DWP cuts to be achieved through changes to the Work Capability Assessment, which were announced by the previous government and included in the autumn budget figures. If the government also proceeds with these changes, it could take the total cuts to over £10bn a year by 2029 – 30.
Labour MUST be honest
Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), said of the DWP cuts:
We urgently need honesty from the government about the scale of the cuts they have planned. We have seen a very real increase in the scale and complexity of poor health and disability in the working-age population, compounded by a cost-of-living crisis, crumbling public services and poor-quality, insecure work.
We should be tackling these underlying causes and supporting more people to work and live independently where possible. But slashing the incomes of people in this situation will fail to deliver sustainable savings and will make millions of people’s lives even harder than they already are.
Featured image via the Canary
